Bread and Better

Tuesday, 25 March 2014

Caramel slices are something that I bake when I am in need of a real sweet fix. I tend to make a big tray and then keep it in the fridge so I can greedily pick at them. I have been a fan of salted caramel for a while now (like a lot of other people) and I thought it might be a good idea to combine the two.
My usual caramel slice recipe is delicious, but the caramel seems to never set properly. As enjoyable as it is to eat the gooey mess, its so hard to cut up, so I thought I would see if I could find a different method to try and solve the problem.
I was originally just going to search for a salted caramel that I could add to my slices but then I found this http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/salted_caramel_39300 salted millionaires shortbread recipe from Simon Rimmer. I tried this instead and I have to say it worked a real treat.

Boiling the caramel instead of heating it slowly and then baking it (as my original recipe suggested) seemed to make the caramel a lot firmer. I did have to add more salt, but I think that was just my taste preference. All in all they were delicious.

Sunday, 23 March 2014

There's nothing I love more in life than a good loaf of bread. Whenever we get a new loaf in at work my first thoughts are 'How can I make this?' and 'How can I make this even tastier'. So when we got a light rye and cheese bread in a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't wait to get in the kitchen and come up with my own version.
I had made a cheese and onion tear and share bread before and I thought these flavours would work well with the nuttiness of the rye. I think its good to take advantage of local produce, which is why I decided to go for Lancashire cheese. Its crumbly texture made grating easier too as it practically fell apart in my hands.

Here is my recipe:

Rub 7g of dried yeast into a mixture of 300g of strong white flour and 200g of rye flour. Add a few pinches of salt, about 350ml of water (depending on your flour) and knead for around 10 minutes into a smooth dough. Leave to rise by half for about an hour (covered by some cling film, a tea towel or a shower cap).
In the mean time, fry 2 onions until soft and set to one side to cool. Grate about 150g (to taste) of lancashire cheese and mix most of it into the cooled onion mixture (saving the rest for the top of the loaf).
When the dough has risen, roll the dough out into a large rectangle and then put the filling into the middle. Roll the dough into a sausage shape and then cut into 3 equal pieces. Roll each of the pieces into long sausage shapes and attach together at the top. Plait them together, tucking the end piece underneath. Leave the loaf to rise by half.
When the loaf is ready to bake sprinkle the top with the remaining cheese.
Bake at 200 degrees for about 20 minutes and then leave to cool.